Early Christmas trip to KC and snow upon arrival home

We arrived back in Flag the other day after a trip to KC for an early celebration with Anne's parents for Christmas. While we were there we experienced temps in the 60's until Sunday and then the temps fell like a rock. We had a few hours to check out the cyclocross nationals but only made it through the elite women's class where Katie Compton won her fifth National Championship. The wind chill was in the single digits so we bailed but it was cool to see part of. When we arrived back Monday night there was quite a bit of snow so we decided to go skiing today. It was Yampa first ski trip so we just headed up to Snowbowl and skinned up for one run down the mountain. It was pretty fun but seems like a couple feet of snow is probably still needed to open up. Yampa was going nuts in the snow and may just become a pretty good ski dog. My toe is getting better but still was a bit painful initiating turns on the skis. Oh well at least I can wear the shoes I want. Happy winter!

Trying not to puke

So I went back to the podiatrist this morning and got the results from my blood test. 8.7 on the the uric acid test which is high and pretty much proves that my foot problem is gout. So after a week of Colchicine I was prescibed another anti-inflammatory to take until the swelling goes away. This one is called Indomethicin and after reading about it I am now aware of some bad side effects after prolonged use. I took one a couple of hours ago and have felt like puking ever since so my taking of it may be short lived. I also did some investigating into dietary needs to decrease uric acid and learned some interesting facts about purines and what foods contain the most. Spinach, lentils, oats, and beans are all high in purines which elevate uric acid levels so along with beer and wine I was pretty much screwed from the beginning. I am going to try and am eat way less of these things but it will be tough as oats are in breakfast for me everyday and beans are a staple for dinner. On a different note I got a new t-shirt the other day from Bryce at AZ Bikes that apparently has been remade by popular demand. I also found Anne's Moab Marathon finishers medal which was a source of great humor this past spring. First of all the medal was given out at check in and not when people actually finished and secondly the medals are left over from 2004 and not made for the current year. Classic. Good work folks. It is a good thing that the course had amazing scenery of red rock country through the entire race course.

One of these is not like the other, Guitar Heroing it up over Thanksgiving, and Does this dog look like she can jump the 6 foot fence.

It has sure been awhile since I last blogged but not too much has been happening. My left foot is a bit less swollen than it was last week but still too big for a regular shoe. It is still a little painful in certain area around the big toe and ball of the foot but seems to be getting better. The podiatrist believes that I have gout which is odd to me. So over the next couple of week I have to skip drinking and eating red meat and cheese. The first one of the three is the only one that I am missing (not really but kinda). Over Thanksgiving Anne's mom visited and bought us Guitar Hero which we promptly had to play. I included a photo of Anne and her mom as they were getting booed off the stage during an exceptional performance. Most recently is the issue with Yampa the dog. I went outside a couple of days ago to see what she was up to and could not find her in the yard. As I got slightly worried I tried to figure out how she got out and then notice her playing with Humphrey the neighbor's dog. I went over to get her and brought her home and watched her to see where she got over the fence. She promptly attempted to jump the fence right where I figured she got over. It is amazing that she can get over a six foot fence with relative ease. Off to Home Depot I went and got chicken wire to raise the height of the fence. Unfortunately the fence is flexible enough to create little paw holds that Yampa can scamper up. Then I got about 30 feet of animal fencing that I had left and put it up on the section where she jumps and she was able to get up to about 8 feet but not all the way over. I will be off to Home Depot in the morning again to replace the chicken wire in the photo for some taller, more burley animal fencing. Maybe one of these day I will be able to ride again. My foot will probably be good enough to ride about the time it really starts snowing.